Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

[Aram Avetisyan]

Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max Daily Builds Discussion

You can grab the latest build from: Daily Builds Changelog

[PTMV]

Will we have live link in this version in chaos vantage?

[_fosafosa]

I made clean install for this daily build.
Unfortunately in scenes made back in Corona 10 still crushes when starting IR...


Edit:
Guys i am sorry, that's actually forest pack that doesnt work well with new Corona.....

[maru]

I made clean install for this daily build.
Unfortunately in scenes made back in Corona 10 still crushes when starting IR...


Edit:
Guys i am sorry, that's actually forest pack that doesnt work well with new Corona.....

Could you please send us a sample of such a problematic scene at https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
We are using the newest available versions of Forest and RailClone, in our internal scenes and user scenes, and we could not reproduce any crashes so far.

[amitgedia1980]

Hi,
When is the bug going to get sorted where the Chaos scatter toolbar doesn't show up when using small icon toolbar in 3dsmax. This is a long awaited fix we have been waiting for.
Thank you.

[maru]

Hi,
When is the bug going to get sorted where the Chaos scatter toolbar doesn't show up when using small icon toolbar in 3dsmax. This is a long awaited fix we have been waiting for.
Thank you.

This is already fixed internally and will be included in the upcoming Corona 12 Hotfix 1.

[Jpjapers]

Please please pretty please could we finally get a toon outline shader? Or even just expand coronawire to include a profiles mode (like sketchup profiles) without needing to outline every face?

At work currently to produce elevations with just the profiles outlined and not every polygon we are relying on a free third party exporter to export to sketchup and then produce them in there. If corona had the ability to render outlines it would have saved me genuinely weeks of work in the last two months.

It has been requested since 2014 for the exact same purpose and theres a TON of support for it every time someone posts about it. I dont think ive seen many people asking for ink and paint style shading. Just this outlines feature.

I imagine youll say you cant make any commitments to features etc etc and to post it in the feature requests etc which is fine. But toon outlines have been requested since the beta days and are consistently requested still and are one of the most backed and popular requests every time its mentioned. So if you could consider this for v13 it would make lots of your core user base very happy.

[amitgedia1980]

Hi,
When is the bug going to get sorted where the Chaos scatter toolbar doesn't show up when using small icon toolbar in 3dsmax. This is a long awaited fix we have been waiting for.
Thank you.

This is already fixed internally and will be included in the upcoming Corona 12 Hotfix 1.

Thank you for the update and releasing the fix for it in the HF 1. It has been long waited.

[dj_buckley]

Just this outlines feature.

+1 million

[karelbuhr]

Hello, are you planning to enable 'history autosaving for sequences and for slaves during distributed rendering' again in a future hotfix? I've been using this as a way to save the full CXR file since there is no other way to do it.

[maru]

Hello, are you planning to enable 'history autosaving for sequences and for slaves during distributed rendering' again in a future hotfix? I've been using this as a way to save the full CXR file since there is no other way to do it.

Just to make sure all is clear: this is disabled only for the VFB history autosave (not for the rendering autosave).
Do you need this feature? If so, why exactly would you like to save history items while rendering a sequence?

[karelbuhr]

Okay, sorry about that. I'll try to be more clear. I just meant this (render history A/B comparison). When I use DR, it no longer saves the CXR file. But without DR it saves it.

[maru]

Can you explain why exactly you would like to autosave history items when using DR? What's your workflow?

[Frood]

Quote from tooltip "Render History and A/B Comparison":

"If enabled, a new item will be automatically added to the render history in the Corona VFB after each render ends (both IR and Production). This feature is automatically disabled when rendering sequences, and also for nodes during distributed rendering."

This is another feature Corona team managed to turn into some broken mystery, needing a diagram to look at when trying to use it. And it feels like decisions are made to work around design flaws rather than solving the issue itself.

1. IR results have never ever been saved to history in any Corona version so far. It was even considered as a bug in some daily when it happens - I remember reporting this, and some famous developer who is unfortunately out of duty atm. confirmed it as a bug. If (this==kindof NewFeature): the result does not get saved into history by pressing "stop" if using IR which is the "stop and save the results so far" button in contrast to "cancel", so it SHOULD be saved in history when pressing "Stop". It only gets saved if IR "Max passes" is set explicitly by the user - and has been reached.

AND it only happens if having "Time Output" to "Single"?! Who on earth should be able to understand and remember all this? If I just want to IR a frame and would like to have a history item from it, I have to change my scene setup, really? Btw: IR stop condition still defaults to 0, meaning "rendering forever", so you usually do not get a history item using IR anyway (a shame to have it at 0 by default nowadays btw.).

2. Do not even try to be smarter as the user. If I render a sequence, say frame 0 to 20, every 5th frame, I want to have exactly this in the history if I have enabled "autosave" - independently of having DR activated or not. DR on/off should never ever make any difference while using any feature anyway. Of course DR slaves should not write history items locally, they should never EVER write anything to production files. I've been fighting a lot to just have slaves not to overwrite light cache files - hard to believe that it took almost a decade to get that destructive behavior removed. Slaves should just deliver data to the master and never touch any production file, no need to stress that in a tooltip.


Good Luck

[dj_buckley]

Can you explain why exactly you would like to autosave history items when using DR? What's your workflow?

Am i missing something here?  But surely the answer is "for the exact same reasons as when not using DR"

[LukaK]

Please please pretty please could we finally get a toon outline shader? Or even just expand coronawire to include a profiles mode (like sketchup profiles) without needing to outline every face?

At work currently to produce elevations with just the profiles outlined and not every polygon we are relying on a free third party exporter to export to sketchup and then produce them in there. If corona had the ability to render outlines it would have saved me genuinely weeks of work in the last two months.

It has been requested since 2014 for the exact same purpose and theres a TON of support for it every time someone posts about it. I dont think ive seen many people asking for ink and paint style shading. Just this outlines feature.

I imagine youll say you cant make any commitments to features etc etc and to post it in the feature requests etc which is fine. But toon outlines have been requested since the beta days and are consistently requested still and are one of the most backed and popular requests every time its mentioned. So if you could consider this for v13 it would make lots of your core user base very happy.

Agree 100%. But it seems they just don't care what customers are asking for for almost a decade. Corpo behaviour at its finest, thanks to Chaos I guess.

[maru]

Hmm, I don't understand the strong reaction regarding the history autosaving. Let me try to explain what the original issue was and how we ended with the current solution:

First of all, there was a long and thorough discussion before making any decisions. The discussion involved the devs, support, and QA.

The issue was that while rendering in "silent" mode (no UI, no VFB, for example distributed rendering) with the history autosaving enabled, a pop-up message could appear when the HDD size / number of snapshots limit is reached, asking the user whether to delete the history snapshots or not, and this would halt rendering. So theoretically you could start rendering in the evening and wake up to see only 10% of your animation rendered.

We were considering either ignoring the popup in silent mode or disabling the history autosave in this case. The thing is, we could not think of any scenario where a user would like to use silent rendering and sequence rendering and use the history autosave. We assumed that you either set your main output file or you use the "regular autosave" (not history autosave) for this. It can also store images on render end, and you can set the limit to 0, and it saves to CXR format.


Here are my requests/questions:

Okay, sorry about that. I'll try to be more clear. I just meant this (render history A/B comparison). When I use DR, it no longer saves the CXR file. But without DR it saves it.

Please explain why exactly you need the history autosave here and the "regular" autosave is not enough for you. What is your exact workflow, what you are achieving thanks to using the history autosave?

Can you explain why exactly you would like to autosave history items when using DR? What's your workflow?

Am i missing something here?  But surely the answer is "for the exact same reasons as when not using DR"

And what exactly is that reason? Can you please provide a use case? Why not use the "regular" autosave instead of the history autosave?

Agree 100%. But it seems they just don't care what customers are asking for for almost a decade. Corpo behaviour at its finest, thanks to Chaos I guess.

This is simply not true and this case has nothing to do with Chaos (as in: the whole company, or other people than the Corona team). Please check this article: https://www.chaos.com/blog/behind-the-scenes-the-corona-renderer-development-process

"Which does not mean we always get it right (we don’t, whether that’s in picking features, or estimating how long things take). What we can say is this though – even when we get it wrong, our heart was in the right place!"

"The article mentions how important user feedback is, so here’s how you can become part of the process! Keep up-to-date with the Changelogs in the daily builds sections of the forum:


Corona for 3ds Max Daily Builds
Corona for Cinema 4D Daily Builds

The Changelog posts in those sections detail what is in each daily build, giving you a chance to test new features well before release. Then you can give us your feedback in the discussion/reporting threads there too, where we welcome suggestions for those new features, as well as any reports of problems using them."

Please note that:
- Saying "this feature is a broken mystery" will help literally nobody. You should instead explain what exactly is wrong and how we can improve it.
- Saying "surely the answer is "for the exact same reasons as when not using DR"" will help literally nobody. We need to know what exactly you mean by "the same reasons".

[dj_buckley]

Can you explain why exactly you would like to autosave history items when using DR? What's your workflow?

Am i missing something here?  But surely the answer is "for the exact same reasons as when not using DR"

And what exactly is that reason? Can you please provide a use case? Why not use the "regular" autosave instead of the history autosave?


Please note that:
- Saying "surely the answer is "for the exact same reasons as when not using DR"" will help literally nobody. We need to know what exactly you mean by "the same reasons".

I was more so getting at the fact that whether it's a DR render or single workstation render shouldn't make a difference as to whether a certain feature works or not.  Most of us use DR simply to get faster renders, so if something works when doing a local render, you'd assume it would work when bringing DR into play, because you're not changing anything workflow wise other than wanting to get a faster render by adding more processors into the mix.

Also, I thought the OP of that comment had already given his reasons "I've been using this as a way to save the full CXR file since there is no other way to do it."

As I understand it, this feature worked previously but the functionality has since been changed.  Was the change documented/announced anywhere or was it another under the hood change that users weren't notified about?  Because that's happened before and I remember users weren't too happy then.

Also if you're basically saying "you don't need this feature" which is certainly what it sounds like.  Then why does it/did it even exist as an option in the first place?

Ultimately the users determine how they use the product and if the option is there, chances are someone will find a reason to use it.

Also I wasn't try to be confrontational/unhelpful in any way.  Frood actually beat me to it when they said "DR on/off should never ever make any difference while using any feature anyway."  That's all I was getting at

[maru]

Also, I thought the OP of that comment had already given his reasons "I've been using this as a way to save the full CXR file since there is no other way to do it."

We understand what you would like. But we do not understand why. None of the replies so far explains why you are asking for this. The only valid answer would be explaining to us what exactly you are doing with the history autosave feature, not just saying that you are using it.

As I understand it, this feature worked previously but the functionality has since been changed.  Was the change documented/announced anywhere or was it another under the hood change that users weren't notified about?  Because that's happened before and I remember users weren't too happy then.

It was announced in the V13 and V12 HF1 changelog.

Also if you're basically saying "you don't need this feature" which is certainly what it sounds like.  Then why does it/did it even exist as an option in the first place?

Nobody is saying that, I am just trying to understand you (and failing so far). I also do not understand why you can't use the regular VFB autosave feature for this (not the history autosave).

Ultimately the users determine how they use the product and if the option is there, chances are someone will find a reason to use it.

Of course, and we need to know that reason if we made a mistake and should revert some behavior. We do not understand the reason so far.

[dj_buckley]

Let's be clear.  I don't personally use this feature.  I was simply confused as to why DR would make any difference to the OP's reasons (whatever they are) whatsoever.  That's it.  Nothing more.

One thing that does frustrate me sometimes with this forum, is simple questions being answered with questions and requests to justify your reasonings.  So perhaps it just got my back up a little bit and I replied with a reactionary response.

[TomG]

Our questions are so we can prioritize this, and see if any changes are required. Naturally we don't want to assume that we think is correct - we want to hear from you all on what and why you use a certain approach / feature / workflow, as there may be things not obvious to us. It is not an attempt to deflect, by answering a question with a question, just that we are trying to properly understand how and why something is used in real world work scenarios, so we can prioritize things accordingly (far better than us just assuming we know what is "the right way" to do something, right?). Hope this helps clarify why all the questions!

[TomG]

PS - also, the questions are so that if a change or fix is required, we get it right first time (we hope!), and that again means we have to understand precisely why this approach is needed (in this case, vs. other things that seem to us to achieve the same goal... but we may be wrong :) ).

[Frood]

The discussion involved the devs, support, and QA.

"The article mentions how important user feedback is, so here’s how you can become part of the process!

So where is the user here? There has not even been a daily containing those changes, it just has been released in a final hotfix version with no chance to discuss anything, not to mention testing.

- Saying "this feature is a broken mystery" will help literally nobody. You should instead explain what exactly is wrong and how we can improve it.

I'd say instead, quoting a single expression without context won't help.

If you read 1) and 2) it should be clear. VFB history is an interactive feature and it got crippled because of some situation that may occur if users brain is in idle state. I already mentioned, that disabling history autosave in slave mode of course is something that should have been there out of the box. But why those master and sequence restrictions? No one would render a complete animation having history autosave activated. If so, it is just a user error, nothing more. Corona does not check dozens of other user errors like that (worse ones that should be handled at Corona side included). But in this case it does, while obscuring the feature at the same time.

And exactly right now I use that feature in Corona 11: the client has chosen a few shots and I render those frames into history because there will be some changes. And I need the current state for later comparison. And yes, it's a frame sequence (with disabled output). And yes, I have some DR nodes active to speed things up. The use case is to use the feature, that's it.

The obvious solution for me would have been to check at render start if 1. VFB history is enabled and 2. if a sequence is going to render and if so, to issue a warning when starting to render. This should be enough to solve that issue (if it even is one) without restricting a feature that has been working perfectly until now.

Finally about "mystery": try to make a lists of DR render on/off, iterative render, interactive render, frame sequence, single render where you would see the consequences of using VFB history autosave. And try to create a support article about it. And compare the result with the (former) philosophy of Corona.


Good Luck

[dj_buckley]

Our questions are so we can prioritize this, and see if any changes are required. Naturally we don't want to assume that we think is correct - we want to hear from you all on what and why you use a certain approach / feature / workflow, as there may be things not obvious to us. It is not an attempt to deflect, by answering a question with a question, just that we are trying to properly understand how and why something is used in real world work scenarios, so we can prioritize things accordingly (far better than us just assuming we know what is "the right way" to do something, right?). Hope this helps clarify why all the questions!

I think the biggest issue is that when people post on the forums, they're generally mid-job and are looking for a quick fix/answer to a new problem.  The last thing they want/need is to have to put a full business case together in order to get a response to a relatively simple question.  And they most definately don't want to have to change all or part of their workflow mid job just to be able to achieve the same thing they were achieving previously

[Frood]

And they most definately don't want to have to change all or part of their workflow mid job just to be able to achieve the same thing they were achieving previously

At any time, kick legacy stuff if outdated or designed newly and properly. But what is happening here is pure activism, destroying (again) a working and useful feature.


Good Luck

[karelbuhr]

Hello,

I'm not upset or anything. :)
So I'll try to explain in more detail:

I've been using history autosaves to save CXR files for quite some time. It was fine with me that these files were deleted after 3ds Max or C4D was closed because I would copy them to a folder with renders or rendered elements before closing. This way, if my clients wanted any changes to the image in progress, I could easily make them using the full CXR file in the VFB. That's why I prefer to keep these files. I agree that it doesn’t make sense to enable this for a single station and disable it for DR. I have two PCs with approximately similar configurations, so my render times are twice as fast. That’s why I use it. Before version 12, it sometimes saved thousands of CXR files, and I didn't mind. The problem now is that these files are no longer deleted after the application is closed, which causes that pop-up dialog to appear. In my case, it has frozen 3ds Max a few times.

If I can achieve the same result with Output Autosave without saving tens of GB for each image (which would use up my TBW within a year), I'm okay with that.

Have a nice day,
Karel

[maru]

Please try the autosave feature and let us know if it works for your use case. You can also load a CXR file (saved from autosave, manually, or any other way) into the VFB:

[romullus]

Messages with feature request were moved to appropriate thread: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=96.0

Please stay on topic people, this thread is for discussing issues related to Corona 13 daily builds. Don't make life harder than necessary for mods, thanks.

[Frood]

Please stay on topic people, this thread is for discussing issues related to Corona 13 daily builds.

All IS about v13. The fact that a v13 daily got v12.1 (the usual procedure) does not change the fact, that things are suggested here to be "ok" for v13. Nobody mentioned that any change is a temporary solution (cure the disease by killing the patient - see Francis Bacon) because there are issues. It is rather presented as a "fix" and I never ever want to have this "fix" in 12.1 nor in v13.


Good Luck

[romullus]

All IS about v13. The fact that a v13 daily got v12.1 (the usual procedure) does not change the fact, that things are suggested here to be "ok" for v13. Nobody mentioned that any change is a temporary solution (cure the disease by killing the patient - see Francis Bacon) because there are issues. It is rather presented as a "fix" and I never ever want to have this "fix" in 12.1 nor in v13.

There were few messages with wishlists for future versions. I moved them to feature request board. I think that everything that left here is appropriate for this discussion. Peace.

[Aram Avetisyan]

Okay, sorry about that. I'll try to be more clear. I just meant this (render history A/B comparison). When I use DR, it no longer saves the CXR file. But without DR it saves it.

Hi,

I have finally found time to conduct some tests for this. Corona 12 fh1, Max 2024:

• When rendering a single frame, with DR, the history autosave works as expected - file is saved on the master. Nodes do not save anything (it would be incomplete anyway). If confirmation window for deletion appears, OK-ing it will remove some file(s) and save, if cancelled, output will be saved without any deletion (this means confirmation window will appear on the next round of rendering too, as file count/size is reached)
• When rendering sequences, Max will throw a warning message, that only the last file will be saved, prompting for output. History autosave (not output autosave) is expected to not work here, which is fine with the tests too.

If you have a scene where rendering with DR does not do history autosave, please send it over and we will test it.

For the rest:
• Stopping (but not cancelling? any thoughts on this) IR should make history autosave. Currently it doesn't, only when pass limit is reached - this will be reported.
• Output autosave (the one made for full, complete renders by design), worked as expected in any scenario - single or sequence rendering, with or without DR. It automatically overwrote oldest files.

My suggestion is to use history autosave for IR (iterating over design, local rendering), and for complete frames use Output autosave, that is given you have not explicitly specified output for renders in Max.
The main difference is that history autosave automatically adds history items for convenience. But you can still load CXR from output autosave into history.

Another suggestion:
Output autosave automatically overwrites old files to store new ones, without any confirmation window.
Does it make sense to implement the same behavior for history autosave too?

Hope this clears things out.

[shortcirkuit]

Hi team

Not sure if this could be posted here, but it does affect the dailies.  I wrote a post here:
https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=43406.msg227275#msg227275

Look at the difference between Maxs Native Physcal Material vs Corona.  Its such a time waster!!!!

[shortcirkuit]

Hi Devs

Something that has been bothering me for years.  When you do a render and have bloom ON and THEN you want to REGION render an area, the bloom disappears when you re-render (ie when you have the 'clear VFB between renders' checked OFF).
is this something that can be fixed?

[aaouviz]

So, I started using Corona in 2018. I almost immediately complained that a Corona Light with direction set at .4 or above isn't properly visible in reflections/refractions.

This is still somehow a problem 6 years later.

Any plans to improve this?

Many thanks :)

[Aram Avetisyan]

So, I started using Corona in 2018. I almost immediately complained that a Corona Light with direction set at .4 or above isn't properly visible in reflections/refractions.

This is still somehow a problem 6 years later.

Any plans to improve this?

Many thanks :)

Hi,

This is not quite v13 related.
It it because of POV, if a light source has some directionality, it is expected to not see if from some angles, same applies for reflections. You can use separate lights for lighting and for light source visibility.

[maru]

The "prevent black appearance" option doesn't affect reflections and refraction, only direct visibility. We have this logged at (Report ID=CMAX-195).

[Avi]

Hi Devs

Something that has been bothering me for years.  When you do a render and have bloom ON and THEN you want to REGION render an area, the bloom disappears when you re-render (ie when you have the 'clear VFB between renders' checked OFF).
is this something that can be fixed?

Hi,

We have this logged in our system.

(Report ID=CMAX-1261)

[zaar]

Please please pretty please could we finally get a toon outline shader? Or even just expand coronawire to include a profiles mode (like sketchup profiles) without needing to outline every face?

At work currently to produce elevations with just the profiles outlined and not every polygon we are relying on a free third party exporter to export to sketchup and then produce them in there. If corona had the ability to render outlines it would have saved me genuinely weeks of work in the last two months.

It has been requested since 2014 for the exact same purpose and theres a TON of support for it every time someone posts about it. I dont think ive seen many people asking for ink and paint style shading. Just this outlines feature.

I imagine youll say you cant make any commitments to features etc etc and to post it in the feature requests etc which is fine. But toon outlines have been requested since the beta days and are consistently requested still and are one of the most backed and popular requests every time its mentioned. So if you could consider this for v13 it would make lots of your core user base very happy.

I think this topic produces a cognitive dissonance in Corona. From what I understand Corona sees itself as a cheaper (?) and simplified verision of v-ray that is more focused on just producing photoreal renders without all the clutter and confusion of all the settings and buttons in v-ray. Now contrary to popular belief, you don't need to touch all the buttons in v-ray render settings anymore. But there are other things like working with displacement that is very nice and simple in Corona compared to v-ray! So with this in mind one can understand that you can't just keep adding stuff all over, because at the end of that trajectory Corona eventually becomes V-ray? And then v-ray users would ask the question why they pay more for v-ray if they are almost the same? So Corona either has to increase it's price or v-ray has to lower it's price.

Corona has also described itself as being focused on visualisation, specifically architectural visualisation (correct me if I'm wrong here!). But in the process of visualising architecture it is not uncommon that the client or architect wants more NPR-like diagrams, sections, axonometric with lines on top of them. But then you are breaking the rule of being the "simple camera that just does photoreal rendering".

Going to sketchup to produce the lines seems like a pain. Depending on how much control you need over the lines, like do you need dashed hidden lines and so on? I think even V-ray toon falls short and you need to look at a specialised toon renderer.
What I've done is to set up a simple template Arnold file, that just renders everything with a white override material and black toon lines. I just merge tha camera and geometry and render. And as long as I don't have a lot of proxies and Corona specific stuff that won't render in Arnold it works ok and I can use it as a multiply layer in Ps.


EDIT: btw, this reminded me of how I a year ago or two, really needed to bake texture maps from a product visualisation job done in Corona. I had to manually convert everything to V-ray. Despite there being some compability, I had used a couple of corona specific maps that wouldn't render in v-ray. And there as a huge amount of manterials to go through. For my main task, Corona render was the perfect choice and a joy to work with! But for my secondary task it fell short. And if you as an artist more and more diversify into different kinds of tasks, you start to question Corona as your choice of renderer. IMHO Chaos could have solved this situation from arriving by simply not allowing any new render-specific maps to be created after the merger. This wouldn't have stopped either team from contributing or taking the lead on a new function/map, but the other team would have to ensure that it was compatible. If a Chaos TriplanarX5000 map was created by the Corona team in one release, one could expect the V-ray team to include Chaos TriplanarX5000 in the next release. From a developer side I'm sure there a billion reasons for why this would be a pain. But from a customer perspective this makes sense to me. Corona could still be Corona, but I could pay for a month of V-ray when I need those extra features like toon lines or texture baking.
Sorry if this is off topic and derailing the thread! I just want to help this situation that I and others are struggling with.

[ronaldjung]

I hope that the Vray, Gaussian Splatting, and Firefly remover updates arrive soon in Corona.

BTW, where do I find an updated Corona Renderer Road Map?

[aaouviz]

I hope that the Vray, Gaussian Splatting, and Firefly remover updates arrive soon in Corona.

BTW, where do I find an updated Corona Renderer Road Map?

I saw that Gaussian Splatting update too... Would be amazing!

[alexyork]

Oof, the new caustics improvements in today's DB are sounding tasty! Thanks devs. This is what we like to see. Hope we can test here soon.

Edit: devs, do you have any visual examples of the changes and the impact they have by any chance? Would be super cool to see your internal tests for this and how they're impacting speed + quality.

[romullus]

I like the new distribution map presets, but i think in current implementation they are very limiting. We need controls for scale and also RW scale support. Instead of high-low variants of the same map, it would be much more useful if users could edit the balance (levels) and contrast. Rotation and perhaps offset would be very useful too. I know that most of those things can be achieved by other means, like adding UVW map and UVW xform modifiers to distribution object, but it's much more convenient to have all controls in one place, especially since switching between scatter and other objects is not particularly snappy operation even in medium complexity scenes.

Oh, and why UV channel selection is disabled with custom maps? A bug perhaps?

Edit: one more request - an option to invert map.

[88qba88]

I love it!
One light (corona disc, directionality 1), 2 lenses with dispersion (spheres with refraction set to 1, color white, roughness 0, caustics ON + dispersion 35 ON). All inside box with volume material applied (absorption + scattering, close to white color, distance adjusted to scene size).

[maru]

I did some similar experiments and I think there is one upgrade you could add: duplicate the lenses, apply Corona Slicer Mtl to them, and slice the volume box (not the lenses). This way you will end up with no volumetric medium inside the lenses. If we imagine that the volume box is smoke, then in your scene there is some smoke INSIDE the lenses too and it affects light passing through them. :)

[TomG]

Current roadmaps are at https://trello.com/b/EfPE4kPx/corona-tentative-road-map-3ds-max for Max and https://trello.com/b/dgI8vjDb/corona-tentative-road-map-cinema-4d for C4D, though with a focus on 12 Update 1 and not what is planned for next year (ie big pool hasn't been reviewed in a bit, as we'll wait til the next release is done - an example there is we hope to add the rendering of Gaussian Splats into one of the releases next year, but it's not on the map yet).

And yes, on release, this is being called 12 Update 1, not 13 :)

I hope that the Vray, Gaussian Splatting, and Firefly remover updates arrive soon in Corona.

BTW, where do I find an updated Corona Renderer Road Map?

[TomG]

An example of improvement, does not use the new volumetric caustics, both rendered for the same amount of time, no denoising to maximize the comparison, not run til clean to keep noise to maximize the comparison, between existing 12 Hotfix 1 and the 12 Update 1 daily:
https://corona-renderer.com/comparer/gQtUPv

PS they are all sat on a glass table, which is why the ground in the background also shows more cleaning up.

Example of volumetric caustics off and on, note when on the steam catches the light refracting out of the pool:
https://corona-renderer.com/comparer/irVEXo

Oof, the new caustics improvements in today's DB are sounding tasty! Thanks devs. This is what we like to see. Hope we can test here soon.

Edit: devs, do you have any visual examples of the changes and the impact they have by any chance? Would be super cool to see your internal tests for this and how they're impacting speed + quality.

[TomG]

A VERY early test, should make clear what volumetric caustics are - the stuff on the bottom surface is "usual caustics" that any engine offering caustics does, the refracted rays through the volume of the water are what few engines do:

Given this is a very early test, please don't share, but it will help here in case anyone is puzzled by just what volumetric caustics means (you can see the reflected or refracted rays of light pass through volumes, rather in the same way as you see direct light pass through volumes e .g. the "god rays" we are all familiar with)

PS I hope you don't see these in your pool, since that would mean a lot of particulate matter in your pool and just ewww ;)

[alexyork]

Thanks Tom! Great to see examples and encouraged by the results. More of this generally, please! I'm sure the user-base really appreciates it.

Cheers,

[TomG]

Thanks Alex! I figured the speed up here would be something y'all enjoyed as I know you have a lot of scenes that feature caustics :) Would love to hear how you get on with it when you get a chance to try it, you know where to find me lol!

[maru]

I've started a playground thread for the new caustics as I believe they have a high fun factor. :)
https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=43709.0

[CharlyRT]

I love caustics and the first thing that I wanted to try to this new daily was the multiplier.
Finally, I have been asking for this from ages, glad to see that we can add more presence to this effect.
BTW
I had an issue with Chaos Scatter while installing the Daily

[shortcirkuit]

Something feels off with this release.  As soon as i launch a IR render, imy system becomes almost unusable.  everything seems more laggy.

[maru]

Something feels off with this release.  As soon as i launch a IR render, imy system becomes almost unusable.  everything seems more laggy.

Is this happening in any scene or only in some specific scene(s)?

[shortcirkuit]

just in general - while rendering, the VFB seems more laggy.  Even in windows in general - browsing the net, the websites feel laggy to (ie mouse stutters).  It just feels really off.  It never used to do this.  I am using a 5995wx TR if that helps.

Something feels off with this release.  As soon as i launch a IR render, imy system becomes almost unusable.  everything seems more laggy.

Is this happening in any scene or only in some specific scene(s)?

[maru]

I was able to get some lagging/stuttering which does not seem to happen in V12 HF1. It is especially visible when IR is running and you pan/zoom/move the camera. We will look into it.
(Report ID=CMAX-1322)

[aaouviz]

Yeah, I'm experiencing this lag with IR too. I thought it was just from heavy scatters, but now I think not...

Windows 10. Max 2025.1 Threadripper 7970x

[Neil Cross]

I see we cant make any new posts under the new features thread so im gonna drop this here hoping we can see some similar features in future builds.

Gaussian Splats
Some cool VFB tools you could add to VFB 2.0
Luminaire Lights

[maru]

This thread is only for daily build-related things. If you would like to submit a feature request or vote for an existing one, please see https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=43440.0

[Neil Cross]

Yup I realised that after scrolling up and seeing Toms post.. thanks!

[TomG]

Just to continue misusing this thread briefly - I already predicted that gaussians and luminaires would be requests from Corona users once the V-Ray 7 feature set went public, so already have that down on the list of things to consider for next year :) OFC still add them to the Ideas Portal (unless they are there already, I am pretty sure gaussian splats are there if I remember right)

EDIT - For VFB 2 suggestions based on V-Ray 7, please list each feature separately rather than as an all-in-one request for multiple changes, thanks!

[Neil Cross]

Awesome thanks Tom! Will do.

[lupaz]

Hi.
I'm not sure if I understand this update:

"Extended CoronaBitmap about togglable aspect ratio lock button + added 'Fit to bitmap' button. The second one is available when Real World Scale is on and lock is not active."

What's this for? Triplanar?

[shortcirkuit]

its for maps that are NOT square.  For instance, a floorboard texture that is 2000pixels x 800 pixels.  It adjusts the ratio so that it maps correctly.

Hi.
I'm not sure if I understand this update:

"Extended CoronaBitmap about togglable aspect ratio lock button + added 'Fit to bitmap' button. The second one is available when Real World Scale is on and lock is not active."

What's this for? Triplanar?

[shakedalon]

Are there any Corona to Vantage updates?
Especially in Corona color-correction terms , it's still not smoothly exported to vantage.

[lupaz]

its for maps that are NOT square.  For instance, a floorboard texture that is 2000pixels x 800 pixels.  It adjusts the ratio so that it maps correctly.

Hi.
I'm not sure if I understand this update:

"Extended CoronaBitmap about togglable aspect ratio lock button + added 'Fit to bitmap' button. The second one is available when Real World Scale is on and lock is not active."

What's this for? Triplanar?

So... Does it work with triplanar?

[romullus]

So... Does it work with triplanar?

Why wouldn't it? It's just a aspect ratio lock button, nothing has changed in regards of how Corona physical material or triplanar work.

[maru]

It seems to be working as expected with Triplanar. Here is a short demo.
Using Triplanar with RWS is a bit tricky. It looks like the dimensions specified in RWS bitmap are respected by triplanar when its scale is set to 1 unit.

[lupaz]

EDIT: Is it possible to have "fit to bitmap" available when NOT using RWS?

It seems to be working as expected with Triplanar. Here is a short demo.
Using Triplanar with RWS is a bit tricky. It looks like the dimensions specified in RWS bitmap are respected by triplanar when its scale is set to 1 unit.

[Aram Avetisyan]

EDIT: Is it possible to have "fit to bitmap" available when NOT using RWS?

it is, but you always UVW map the bitmap with tile mode, don't you? And it is more convenient to control the UVW map rather than the bitmap.
You can always change to RWS, fit to bitmap, then turn back to tile mode.

[lupaz]

EDIT: Is it possible to have "fit to bitmap" available when NOT using RWS?

it is, but you always UVW map the bitmap with tile mode, don't you? And it is more convenient to control the UVW map rather than the bitmap.
You can always change to RWS, fit to bitmap, then turn back to tile mode.

I'm specifically thinking about the usage together with triplanar.
So I wouldn't use a UVW map. I can control the overall size with the triplanar node, but switching to RWS to use the button "fit to bitmap" and then back to regular mapping doesn't seem to be a very convenient workflow, when it sounds like having that "fit to bitmap" available always wouldn't require much work on your end.
I may be wrong of course, but it sounds like this will be like the 'no open CXR button' situation in the VFB and for years we had to use "resume from file" instead.
If not too much bother, please, have the "fit to bitmap" button available at all times.
Appreciated.

[romullus]

I wonder why fit to bitmap is only available in RWS mode? This makes no sense to me. Please make it available all the time.

[maru]

I wonder why fit to bitmap is only available in RWS mode? This makes no sense to me. Please make it available all the time.

I agree. Let's see if this can be done.
(Report ID=CMAX-1342)

[ying]

Hi,
Want to mix light? Is this toolbar fixed?
This toolbar does not slide with the slider on the right.
Because there are too many lights, slide down to adjust the lights and slide back to the top to use this toolbar.
It doesn't seem very convenient. It's a small personal idea.
②Corona hopes to launch an official Chinese version.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Corona team.

[Aram Avetisyan]

I wonder why fit to bitmap is only available in RWS mode? This makes no sense to me. Please make it available all the time.

There can be a separate fix for triplanar to always respect texture aspect ratio, so there is no need to click on every CoronaBitmap's "Fit to bitmap" to use it with triplanar.

Fit to bitmap to automatically calculate the height/V tiling (based on width/U tiling) would not hurt to have, but that will mean UVW mapping usage difference.

[Aram Avetisyan]

Hi,
Want to mix light? Is this toolbar fixed?
This toolbar does not slide with the slider on the right.
Because there are too many lights, slide down to adjust the lights and slide back to the top to use this toolbar.
It doesn't seem very convenient. It's a small personal idea.
②Corona hopes to launch an official Chinese version.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Corona team.

To "lock" the toolbar to always be visible is reported now, thanks.
No info on Chinese version support for now, sorry. Hopefully there will be news sometime soon.

(Report ID=CMAX-1344)

[maru]

I moved the viewport / IR performance discussion here: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=43787.0

[romullus]

I wonder why fit to bitmap is only available in RWS mode? This makes no sense to me. Please make it available all the time.

There can be a separate fix for triplanar to always respect texture aspect ratio, so there is no need to click on every CoronaBitmap's "Fit to bitmap" to use it with triplanar.

Fit to bitmap to automatically calculate the height/V tiling (based on width/U tiling) would not hurt to have, but that will mean UVW mapping usage difference.

Sorry, i missed your reply. I think fit to bitmap is quite useful even without triplanar. If RWS mode have it then i see no reason why 0-1 UV mode shouldn't, after all they're one and the same thing.

I'm not sure if i understand your last sentence, but if you're saying this will be addressed in one way or another, then please ignore my message.

[shadyz]

Is there any possibility to implement this in Corona? Other engines like VRay or FStorm have it, and it's very useful for materials that use many maps. If adjustments to tiling or other parameters are necessary, it makes the process much faster.

Thank you!

[maru]

Is there any possibility to implement this in Corona? Other engines like VRay or FStorm have it, and it's very useful for materials that use many maps. If adjustments to tiling or other parameters are necessary, it makes the process much faster.

Thank you!

Please log your feature request on our Ideas Portal: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/27701668531729-How-to-request-a-new-feature
You will need to pick "Add a new idea" and describe your feature request in detail.

[aaouviz]

To be honest, I'm getting kinda sick of having this problem and asking this question, but here we go again:

How do I ensure the latest scatter is installed when I use the latest daily? It doesn't seem to install + update as expected.

From memory there is a manual install, but I cannot find the steps I must follow...

I can't even find information on which is the latest scatter release (to check if I have the latest installed or not, I only know do to lack of released features)

Please advise. Thanks!

[Aram Avetisyan]

To be honest, I'm getting kinda sick of having this problem and asking this question, but here we go again:

How do I ensure the latest scatter is installed when I use the latest daily? It doesn't seem to install + update as expected.

From memory there is a manual install, but I cannot find the steps I must follow...

I can't even find information on which is the latest scatter release (to check if I have the latest installed or not, I only know do to lack of released features)

Please advise. Thanks!

Hi,

A new (daily) build of Corona does not necessarily mean a new build of Scatter.
In any case, the installer automatically "sees" if the Scatter version needs updating (if it comes with the installer) and does so. If not, the previous version is kept.
It used to be like this for quite long.

Please tell which version of Corona you are using and what is the reported version of scatter in 3ds Max > Scatter object > info menu, so we can check.

[aaouviz]

To be honest, I'm getting kinda sick of having this problem and asking this question, but here we go again:

How do I ensure the latest scatter is installed when I use the latest daily? It doesn't seem to install + update as expected.

From memory there is a manual install, but I cannot find the steps I must follow...

I can't even find information on which is the latest scatter release (to check if I have the latest installed or not, I only know do to lack of released features)

Please advise. Thanks!

Hi,

A new (daily) build of Corona does not necessarily mean a new build of Scatter.
In any case, the installer automatically "sees" if the Scatter version needs updating (if it comes with the installer) and does so. If not, the previous version is kept.
It used to be like this for quite long.

Please tell which version of Corona you are using and what is the reported version of scatter in 3ds Max > Scatter object > info menu, so we can check.

Hi, I'm using latest daily of Corona; Oct 23 - Scatter installed is: 6.0.27947+daily-2024-07-30, build timestamp: Jul 30 2024 08:30:15

Is this correct? I only ask as I'd like to use the new scattering options I've seen promoted around the place.

[Aram Avetisyan]

If by "around the place" you mean VRay 7, then again it may not be the case, as builds vary for Corona and VRay too.
But if you have access to VRay 7, it should come with a newer version of scatter and it should be installed with VRay, and you can give it a try.

[aaouviz]

If by "around the place" you mean VRay 7, then again it may not be the case, as builds vary for Corona and VRay too.
But if you have access to VRay 7, it should come with a newer version of scatter and it should be installed with VRay, and you can give it a try.

Oh! I must've misunderstood that the new distribution scattering maps were available for Corona already. Apologies!

Ok, I'll continue to wait :)

[maru]

Oh! I must've misunderstood that the new distribution scattering maps were available for Corona already. Apologies!

They are available in the Corona 13 daily builds since the 10.10 build.

[ying]

Hello, I hope distributed rendering can support regional rendering and selective rendering (pixel mask).
I would like to thank the corona team.

[romullus]

Hi, I'm using latest daily of Corona; Oct 23 - Scatter installed is: 6.0.27947+daily-2024-07-30, build timestamp: Jul 30 2024 08:30:15

Is this correct? I only ask as I'd like to use the new scattering options I've seen promoted around the place.

I'm on the same daily build, but my scatter version is 6.0.483047 timestamp Oct 9 2024 and i can confirm, distribution scattering maps are there.

[maru]

I would suggest uninstalling Scatter (it is listed in the Windows "Programs and Features") and then running the newest Corona installer again.

[aaouviz]

I would suggest uninstalling Scatter (it is listed in the Windows "Programs and Features") and then running the newest Corona installer again.

Ok, this worked. Thanks.

So my first, earlier, query was relevant and this was the answer I was looking for.

Thanks again.

[Aram Avetisyan]

I would suggest uninstalling Scatter (it is listed in the Windows "Programs and Features") and then running the newest Corona installer again.

Ok, this worked. Thanks.

So my first, earlier, query was relevant and this was the answer I was looking for.

Thanks again.

Glad to hear that.
Nevertheless, if you have simply downloaded the dailies and installed them, the newer version should have been installed, it is strange that the scatter version was left at 07-30 DB.

Did you do some custom installation or so (multiloaders e.g., with just Corona version, without specifying scatter version)?
Did you have or installed VRay in between the daily builds of Corona?

[aaouviz]

I would suggest uninstalling Scatter (it is listed in the Windows "Programs and Features") and then running the newest Corona installer again.

Ok, this worked. Thanks.

So my first, earlier, query was relevant and this was the answer I was looking for.

Thanks again.

Glad to hear that.
Nevertheless, if you have simply downloaded the dailies and installed them, the newer version should have been installed, it is strange that the scatter version was left at 07-30 DB.

Did you do some custom installation or so (multiloaders e.g., with just Corona version, without specifying scatter version)?
Did you have or installed VRay in between the daily builds of Corona?

No custom install. And no vray installed.

This same issue has plagued me (and I know others) for at least a year... so it's on-going.

[ying]

Hello, Corona sometimes has a full memory when using interactive, so here's your feedback.
Thanks again to the corona team

[maru]

Hello, Corona sometimes has a full memory when using interactive, so here's your feedback.
Thanks again to the corona team

Which exact version of Corona are you using and did this start happening after you installed this version? Was RAM usage lower in the older versions?
My best guess is that your scene is simply so heavy that it requires more RAM than you have available.

[ying]

I am using corona 12.1. I did not have this problem when using 11.2 before. This problem also occurred when the scene file was small. The 96G memory was suddenly fully loaded and stuck. I could only end the application by opening the task manager. Thank you.

[Frood]

Current daily-2024-11-04:

Thanks for reverting from that VFB history restriction nonsense and for the installer unpack option.

As for the "Update during animation" checkbox of VFB auto adjustments: I still cannot figure out a situation where this would be unwanted. What's the use case here?


Good Luck

[andrew1988]

I am using corona 12.1. I did not have this problem when using 11.2 before. This problem also occurred when the scene file was small. The 96G memory was suddenly fully loaded and stuck. I could only end the application by opening the task manager. Thank you.

It sounds like a memory leak occurred

[maru]

I am using corona 12.1. I did not have this problem when using 11.2 before. This problem also occurred when the scene file was small. The 96G memory was suddenly fully loaded and stuck. I could only end the application by opening the task manager. Thank you.

It sounds like a memory leak occurred

It does, but it could be something completely different. We will do our best to find out what it is.

[i_mamun]

Hello, Corona sometimes has a full memory when using interactive, so here's your feedback.
Thanks again to the corona team

I'm also having the same issue, Some of my 3d scene uses full ram suddenly. But after restarting the scene it goes to normal state using 1/4 of ram memory

[aaouviz]

Hi,

Currently on daily build 2024-11-04 I'm getting odd behavior with my lighting in IR - essentially the lighting is all wrong between camera switches, a restart is necessary each time. Never seen this before.

I have an env override on and some varied camera tonemapping overrides, but nothing else is special.

Please see video and attachments. Thanks.

ab_channel=AnotherAngle3DVisuals

[Aram Avetisyan]

Hi,

Currently on daily build 2024-11-04 I'm getting odd behavior with my lighting in IR - essentially the lighting is all wrong between camera switches, a restart is necessary each time. Never seen this before.

I have an env override on and some varied camera tonemapping overrides, but nothing else is special.

Please see video and attachments. Thanks.

ab_channel=AnotherAngle3DVisuals

I believe it is the camera tone mapping overrides which need a restart to get updated for IR, just like camera object visibility.
You can try doing batch rendering of few cameras which have different tone mapping. They should all come out with expected tone mapping overrides.

[aaouviz]

I believe it is the camera tone mapping overrides which need a restart to get updated for IR, just like camera object visibility.
You can try doing batch rendering of few cameras which have different tone mapping. They should all come out with expected tone mapping overrides.

Has that always been the case?

I don't recall such behavior...

[ying]

Hello, the memory is often full these days. I hope this problem can be solved. Thanks again to the Corona team

[alexyork]

I believe it is the camera tone mapping overrides which need a restart to get updated for IR, just like camera object visibility.
You can try doing batch rendering of few cameras which have different tone mapping. They should all come out with expected tone mapping overrides.

Has that always been the case?

I don't recall such behavior...

Unfortunately yes. Tone Mapping Overrides "break" in IR when you make changes, and you're forced to restart IR each time you make a change. It's quite unfortunate and often catches you out because it doesn't warn you and you can be led to a false impression that something is wrong/not working, when in fact it is fine, when you restart IR or just render normally.

[aaouviz]

Damn, I either completely forgot this, or have never noticed.

I can only assume it has, indeed, unknowingly caused me issues through the years.

Either way; this should be high on the priority list to fix.

[ying]

Polygonal Region Rendering
Hello, I hope the next version of Corona will have the same polygonal area rendering function as VRAY. This function is so useful. I hope Corona can add this function. Thanks to the Corona team

[TomG]

Polygonal Region Rendering
Hello, I hope the next version of Corona will have the same polygonal area rendering function as VRAY. This function is so useful. I hope Corona can add this function. Thanks to the Corona team

For any feature requests, remember to vote for them or add them if not already there over on the Ideas Portal at https://chaoscorona.ideas.aha.io/ - we don't track feature requests from the forum itself any more. Thanks!

[Chatchawind]

Hello, the memory is often full these days. I hope this problem can be solved. Thanks again to the Corona team

I have the same issue : Memory leak when using IR > sometimes moving objects or changing materials suddenly memory goes up full of total amount (128GB) normally I use only 44GB for this scene but 3ds max doesn't crash it is just freeze I need to force to close my 3ds max. I also have the same cpu AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.  Anyway I am not alone with this problem.

[michaltimko]

Corona version: 12 Update 1 (Release Candidate 1)

Not sure if this was reported already but there is small but quite annoying bug when IR is set to stop after certain number of passes and you are tweaking parameters in classic/slate material editor or anywhere in 3ds max. Once the target is reached (for example 6 passes out of 6) - max will deselect your cursor from where you are currently at with your mouse.

For example tweaking bump value require you to click into bump "field" every time IR finishes all the passes instead of keeping bump value selected. Or if you are tweaking UVW map - after typing desired value, IR finishes and deselect you out so instead of typing value again and pressing enter, you have to click into the field again.

Another issues i have is corona error messages popping up from minimized state randomly (quite often).